On December 13, the multi talented Alan Thicke passed away at 69 from a heart attack. He was best known for portraying Jason Seaver on the sitcom Growing Pains but he also was involved with game shows as a host, producer and composer of theme songs.
HSGN looks back at the game show career of Thicke.
The Canadian born Thicke hosted four game shows. His first was in his native Canada, when he presided over the Montreal produced comedy game show First Impressions. The show ran from 1976 to 1977. In 1987, he hosted his first network game show when he became the host of the Saturday morning game show Animal Crackups. The show featured four celebrities who answered questions about animals in a quest to win $2500 for their animal related charity.
The show made extensive use of footage from the Tokyo Broadcasting System since it was based on a Japanese show titled Waku Waku. Thicke also co-wrote and performed the theme song "Animals are Just Like People Too." It was an outstanding mix of education and entertainment and Thicke did an outstanding job as host. He was very personable and interacted well with the celebrities. Animal Crackups had a short run in prime time before moving to Saturday mornings and ran until it was cancelled in 1990.
Another show Thicke would host would be Pictionary, which was based on the board game and similar to Win, Lose or Draw. The show debuted in syndication in the fall of 1997 and like many first run shows that didn't begin their life spans on a network, it would only last one season.
The last game show Thicke would host would be a revival of the late 70s Chuck Barris show Three's a Crowd that aired for one season on GSN.
But Thicke was better known behind the camera as a composer of game show theme songs. His first came in 1973 when he was the producer of the NBC daytime game show The Wizard of Odds. He would also write and perform the show's theme song which was one of the few in game show history that was sung. Even though the show lasted only a year, it would also be known as the first game show that was hosted by Thicke's fellow Canadian Alex Trebek. Ten years after the demise of the Wizard of Odds, he would go on to bigger success as host of Jeopardy, which he still hosts today.
Among Thicke's other game show theme credits include the second theme from the original Joker's Wild that replaced Perrey & Kingsley's The Savers, Celebrity Sweepstakes and the original theme for a show that was hosted by Chuck Woolery and is still very much alive with Pat Sajak at the helm Wheel of Fortune. Other shows that had themes composed by Thicke were Blank Check, Stumpers, The Diamond Head Game and Whew!
The game show world has lost one of its most personable and creative geniuses in Thicke. May he rest in peace.
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